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You Could Be Harming Your Teeth While Completely Unaware |
Posted on 7/26/2021 by SmileCOS Dentistry |
| You may sleep sound as a baby or may not sleep so sound, yet be unaware of how you affect your teeth. Grinding and clenching the teeth at night can lead to real issues with decay, cracked teeth, and infections. Night Bruxism When a patient unknowingly grinds or clenches their teeth while sleeping, they are bruxing at night. This condition, known as bruxism, results from stress and can wreak havoc on the teeth and a person's bite. Often, the diagnosis is not made until a partner mentions it or we discover it during a routine dental exam. Dental Damage Grinding and clenching the teeth at night can lead to problems with loose teeth or fillings, dental cracks, and chips, or loosened dental work. Therefore, when we discover the reason for these events, we must treat the problem immediately. While we can fix the dental damage caused by bruxism, we also need to prevent patients from grinding and clenching their teeth. How We Treat Bruxism We often treat night bruxism by designing a mouth guard for the patient to wear at night. This device is helpful for patients who have light to moderate bruxism. The guard is configured so the patient cannot easily bear down on their teeth while sleeping. In severe cases, we may have to recommend surgery, especially if the condition has triggered temporomandibular joint disorder or TMD. TMD can make it hard for a person to chew and can trigger recurring headache pain. Do you have unexplained cracks or chips in your teeth? Do you regularly experience jaw pain? If so, you need to have the problem diagnosed immediately. The sooner you have these types of conditions addressed, the sooner you can make an overall improvement in your dental health. Give us a call today to schedule a time for an appointment and exam.... Read more... |
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